TEN News shake-up as Jim Carroll quits
TEN's News boss steps down amid speculation that major cuts are coming to TEN News just months after a major recruitment of journalists.
- Published by David Knox
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TEN’s News Director Jim Carroll has quit his position ahead of major cuts that are coming to TEN News staff.
Up to 100 jobs could go, just months after the network hired journalists and production crews as part of a major push to rebrand as its news. They are tipped to go in the newsroom, sales and operations and the 6pm weekend bulletin is set to be axed.
According to The Australian, Carroll was not prepared to sack dozens of journalists who were only just hired.
In an email to his staff today he said he was “stepping down” but he was immensely proud of building a “credible news service”.
The axings are part of an internal review under interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch, and follow the dumping of state-based local bulletins and the exit of former CEO Grant Blackley and head of sports David White.
Of the radical news revamp now it seems only George Negus remains, along with an extended 5pm bulletin. Earlier this week TEN reporter Matt Moran won a prestigious 10th annual Paul Lyneham Award for Excellence in Journalism for the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery following his exclusive coverage of the recent ADF sex scandal.
New CEO James Warburton begins at TEN on January 1st, and there are rumours Adam Boland may join the network.
Carroll may yet be offered another role within TEN.
Melbourne news director Dermot O’Brien will be his News replacement.
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- Tagged with 6:30 with George Negus
29 Responses
I admit this only something I heard rather than know first hand but apparently Jim Carroll was opposed to all the news changes from the start and David Mott was all for it yet Jim is the one going??
@Jerome
It makes no sense to return Neighbours to Ten because:
1. Eleven would be down to a tiny lead in to prime-time.
2. Negus + Neighbours is a stronger combo than anything else they can come up with.
3. What is to say Neighbours would do better than Negus? It got down to below 400k late last year on Ten. Negus is rising. Ditto Ten News at 6, (which gets bigger figures than Negus, btw).
Makes no sense whatsoever to have two weekend bulletins. Ten should keep 5pm and should never have got rid of it in the first place.
6.30pm with George Negus is treading very well. I think it is finding a great niche audience and like some have already said below, this could (and should) well and truly become the main flagship bulletin of the network.
It would be painful to see a Nine replica in Ten… especially when they have hired so much new staff!
Yo David, it’s not the average for 90 minutes! 😉
On any given Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and sometimes Thursday the past couple of months, Ten’s 5-6.30 average has hovered around 750, 700, 680, sometimes 800+. Common sense tells you that equtes to roughly high 5’s or low 6’s most nights – sometimes higher – in that half-hour against Seven and Nine News. By any measure, that is pretty good – compared with what The Simpsons were doing, with the fact it’s very very cheap and efficient, with the fact it’s only been going a couple of months. Some nights in the demos over the past 2 months, their 90-min average beats Seven and/or Nine News, which is really something. So, my point is basically Ten’s 6pm news is doing well, it delivers Negus in the high 5’s and 6’s. Negus’ timeslot is a tougher timeslot but he’s doing not bad.
In terms of Neighbours at 6, another of my problems with it is it doesn’t make a good hour block 6-7. They have flow at the moment. Flow of audience, of content, of type of viewer. Inserting a drama in there makes no sense to me.
Yeah, the points thing, but Ten is setting that issue aside as a different issue.
Need to Merge it’s Weekend 5pm and 6pm News Bulletins and Extend it to a One Hour Local Bulletin.
Hold me to it: neighbours will be back on ten within 3 months. 6:00, 6:30 or 10:30.
Home and Away is up 300k year on year some nights. There Is no reason to doubt Neighbours could atleast have held onto the 750k it was getting last year. Add the value of drama points and it makes sense.
Fauchs: That’s an average for 90 mins. But yes, my suggestion is certainly about addressing drama points too.
If they’re looking to sack that many people, don’t be surprised if George Negus finds his show is reduced to being a weekly, much cheaper made, one hour a week show. 7 PM Project is pretty cheap to make, so it’s fine.
I think they should go have a read of ‘Who Killed Channel 9’ then go rethink. Or at least plan not to go down that road of cost cutting at all expense to milk it for as much money as possible.
@David
But David, the Ten news at 6 Mon-Fri gets high 500’s and 600’s now! The local 6pm Ten News Monday to Friday is doing better than Negus. And it’s doing, I’d say, much better than Neighbours could at 6. Again, demo-wise, it’s doing well. And it’s cheap as!
I cant see how this move creates a “winning culture” at Ten.
Neighbours on Ten does not make sense:
1. It will rate around 400,000. 2. Whatever is on Eleven would rate around 150,000. 3. Combined, that makes for a much smaller audience.
Ten + Eleven is doing well at 6.30. Not far off Nine and its siblings and Seven and its siblings at all in the demographics. Negus and Neighbours each do well with under 55s and, as a team, they are strong.
About the weekend 6pm news:
Ten News at Five Mon-Fri soared for 15 years Without a weekend local news. I’m talking a million+ viewers. It is not unreasonable to think that the current extended weeknight News at Five (into the 6 o’clock half hour) would get its own ratings regardless of whether Ten is there at 6 on weekends. The weekend local news is actually doing badly and I don’t think its presence impacts much on Ten’s weeknight offering. So, cut it.
They should not have done local weekend in this overhaul in the first place. Maybe it should have been more conservative. Test the waters on weeknights and see how they go.
In response to some posts here, Natarsha is plainly stronger than local bulletins on the weekend for Ten, in any timeslot. Months and months have shown this. Except in Perth but they do not matter much to Ten, unfortunately. About Donikian, it doesn’t make sense to have him for one night, but yes, they might keep him.
Neighbours on TEN would help address drama points issue. At 6pm it would be an alternative to News and give Negus a 500,000 lead in.
Negus is doing well and if they stick to it, he will rule that slot. This move makes me lose respect for ten. look what happened to Nine after KP died, they axed higher quality stuff, lost respect and the flow on effect lost them the number one ratings crown. Smart people watch TV too.
This is all Murdoch’s doing. He made the same cuts at DMG. Squeezing every penny from his workforce then wasting money on stupid things. Wish more rich people go into the media business to give him a run for his money.
Put Neighbours back on Ten and get rid of Negus….. he’s a “has been” journo better suited to SBS or ABC…. not prime time commercial TV material in my opinion.
Why not rebrand 630 as Ten Evening News with George Negus. Make this the flagship news on the network and 5pm news more localised. I dont like the name 630, it sounds too much like 7pm project.
Enough with the whole – George is next… Neighbours should’ve stayed where it was.
Week to week both George and Neighbours are increasing their audience share so that’s that. Both Nine and Seven News have cemented themselves and their audience over decades and the follow on with ACA and TT is much the same. There is no over night solution for TEN to be matching those figures.
The seperate 5pm and 6pm News on weekends with Jamie Oliver in the middle was an awful idea. Whoever thought of that needs to get their job cut.
I must admit though George encores need to stop so that Sandra can get the healthy numbers she used to. She used to be Queen of Late NEWS and the proof was Nine eventually axing their Lateline bulletin.
Looks like Neighbours could have stayed at 6:30 pm……
Sad day for Ten as a Network!
I hope Ten decide to keep Lexy Hamilton Smith in Bris. If I were in that same position, I’d take into account what else happened to the employee. In Lexy’s case, she had her home flooded out earlier this year. Search YouTube for the clip 10 uploaded, called “Lexy’s Heartbreak”.
Things are not looking for for George Negus. He’ll be next to get the axe.
Geez, I hope it’s not True, i’m enjoying the Look. I Rather the 5P.M. Weekend News to be Extended by 30 Minutes.
Ten needs to tread carefully before axing this, axing that, taboiding Negus or going down certain roads.
I get the decision to cut 6pm weekend news. I don’t like that decision but I get it. It was a dog of a show, the worst programming move of the year to abandon their 5pm presence and just “hope” they’d all switch over at 6. Result – goodbye 6-700k viewers, hello 130k viewers. Nationally. I’m not joking – they did get that on a chilly (for them) weekend at 6pm in February. (After over two months (!!) I believe, they reinstated 5pm weekends).
6:30 with George Negus and the extended News at Five is a different story. They would be wise to think about what they do, before turning it into a Today Tonight clone or an Entertainment Tonight or this or that.
1) Negus at 6:30 has only existed since April 6. It is Still finding an audience, a brand, a name for itself. In that time alone, it has doubled its Sydney viewership.
2) Negus at 6:30 is largely watched by under 55s, A Current Affair and Today Tonight are largely watched by over 55s.
3) Look at the demographics many nights. Negus is far from “on the bones of its ass”, getting massacred in a ratings bloodbath. This Thursday (and recently) in Melbourne, 6:30 relegated ACA to #3 in two demos – it doubled ACA in 16-39! As for the “juggernaught” Today Tonight, it is only 10k ahead in Sydney in 16-39, and in Melbourne, the audiences were 130k vs 98k in 25-54; 122k vs 93k in 18-49; 77k vs 60k in 18-49.
Think before they turn Negus into a TT clone. The under 55s like classy, informed, considered. They like the fact Negus has Hamish McDonald on big stories overseas, Emma Dallimore in the US, Hugh Riminton in Canberra and so on. The show has momentum and is still growing.
Why can’t Ten just streamline it’s news service into an easier to navigate model for viewers. 7 nights a week, Ten News at 5 for 90 minutes (5-630)
Local in each city
Seems daddy’s work experience kid is enjoying his brand new toy and is attempting to turn it from a bug business into a small business which he has a record for. The name OneTel should explain his corporate competencies.